The security world was taken by surprise earlier this month when researchers discovered Heartbleed, a new large-scale threat that exploits a security vulnerability in OpenSSL. Hackers potentially could access the servers of more than 500,000 Websites, and an unprecedented amount of consumer information is at risk.

Organizations with an online presence have been scrambling to determine whether their servers incorporate the affected versions of OpenSSL. Companies that do not use OpenSSL also are vulnerable, since many consumers use the same password across various sites and their password may have been compromised elsewhere.